Internet Explorer 8 features

Web Slices

Web Slices

Web Slices make it easy to get updates from your favorite sites—watch this video to see how

How many times a day do you check for updates to email, weather reports, sports scores, stock quotes, auction items, and so on? Often this is a manual process, where you have to repeatedly visit sites to check for updates or new information.

Using Web Slices, you can keep up with frequently updated sites directly from the Favorites bar. If a Web Slice is available on a page, a green Web Slices icon will appear on the Command Bar. To keep track of that "slice" of the web, click the icon to add that Web Slice to the Favorites bar.

A Web Slice preview on the Favorites bar

As with Accelerators, Microsoft has taken a platform-based approach to Web Slices, enabling virtually any developer to create them by adding a few lines of code to existing pages. For example, eBay has built a Web Slice so you can monitor an auction. A number of great community- and partner-developed Web Slices are available today. Choose the ones that work for you at the Internet Explorer Add-ons Gallery. Microsoft is working with partners to create more Web Slices, so look for more Web Slices to become available on your favorite sites.

Compatibility View

Compatibility View

View more of your favorite sites—watch this video to see how

Sometimes the website you're visiting doesn't look right because it was designed for an earlier version of Internet Explorer. Click the Compatibility View button to display the website as it would appear in Internet Explorer 7, which will often correct display problems like misaligned text, images, or text boxes. This option is available on a per-site basis and all other sites will continue to display with Internet Explorer 8 functionality. Once you click the Compatibility View button for a site, you don’t need to do it again. The next time you visit that site, the browser will display it in Compatibility View. If for some reason you’d like to go back to browsing with Internet Explorer 8 functionality on that site, simply click the Compatibility View button again.

The Compatibility View button can often help fix display problems. It's next to the Refresh button on the Address Bar.

You can maintain a list within Internet Explorer 8 for sites that should be displayed in Compatibility View. From the Command Bar, click Tools, and then click Compatibility View Settings to add and remove sites from this list. There are also options for viewing all websites and intranet sites in Compatibility View.

You can use Compatibility View Settings to choose which websites you want to be displayed in Compatibility View

Enhanced tabbed browsing

Enhanced tabbed browsing

Have you ever opened a large number of tabs only to find yourself overwhelmed when you go back to review them? Tab groups in Internet Explorer 8 help make tabbed browsing easier. When a link from one tab is opened in a new tab, that new tab is placed next to the originating tab and color-coded, so that you can quickly see which tabs have related content. If you close a tab that's part of a group, another tab from the same group is displayed, enabling you to remain within the context of the current task rather than suddenly looking at an unrelated site.

Color-coded tab grouping helps you keep track of related tabs

By right-clicking any tab, you can close the tab, close the tab group, or remove the tab from a group. From the same menu, you can refresh one or all tabs, open a new tab, reopen the last tab closed, or see a list of all recently closed tabs and reopen any or all of them.

Improved favorites and history

Improved favorites and history

Enhanced Favorites bar

You can save favorites, RSS feeds, and Web Slices to the Favorites bar that appears across the top of the browser so you can quickly navigate to the sites and content that you care about most.

One-click favorites

You only need to click the Add to Favorites Bar button once to immediately add the page you're viewing to the Favorites bar, saving you extra clicks.

RSS feeds on the Favorites bar

Now you can drag an RSS feed to your Favorites bar, making it easier to see when important feeds are updated.

History sorting

On the History tab in Favorites Center, you can sort your browsing history by Site Name, Most Visited Sites, Order Visited Today, and Date, making it easier to organize and locate sites in your history.

History searching

In Internet Explorer 8, you can search for pages in your browsing history by typing keywords, making it easier to locate sites when browsing your history.